Deepchord Presents Echospace – Liumin 8.5

Rod Modell is one of the few people still working in Detroit. And who better than a Detroit-based techno dub artist to convey the weird feeling of living in a warped reality. 

With Liumin, he’s thrown off some of the Basic Channel copy-catting he’s previously been accused, even as one track is called “BCN Dub”. Actually that track ends up being one of the craziest tracks on the whole almost 80 minute album (for the purposes of this review, I will not critique the field recordings second disc). It has a heavy beat mixed with distorted horns trying in vain to get through the mix. Add to that little chords dancing around the field recordings and you have a mammoth dance track.

All of this has that same addictive quality. Field recordings can be fine by themselves, but whenever they are put into dance songs, it is usually out of humor or pretension. Here, neither one of those reasons holds true. Hearing the environment around the lurching, persistent beats just confirms how living and breathing each track is.

Even the pacing is perfect. You’d think that an 80 minute album would grow boring or contain fat, but you’d be wrong. Like Basic Channel, they use each element (including length) to their advantage. The bookends on the album provide an easing into the harder beats. 

Melody appears as well, showing the heart and soul of the humans behind this. “Firefly” has a beautiful, gorgeous melody behind the infectious rhythm. That rhythm only gets harder with the aptly named “Maglev”.  Maglev lives up to the train’s name, moving at some near-unreasonable speed.

I listen to a huge amount of dance music, probably an unhealthy amount. But this album really did it for me, for reasons I can’t fully explain. Rod just knew exactly what he was doing, there’s pure dance perfection here.

2010 end of year list begins

Just randomly picked this after googling "2010". This sort of embodies Canada's true colors.

As October reaches an end, I wonder what will make my year end list. Writing each one of these reviews, I kind of get the impression that 2009 was some sort of “bumper crop” kind of year. So many great bands came out of the woodwork, and we even got a new, actually good genre. I’m still going through all the stuff I have from the year prior, and am shocked at the quality. Definitely I shall include an “apologies for 2009” section in the top list this year. 

Sure, I think that hype was uneven distributed this year. Best Coast was an alright debut, but nothing ground shaking. Same goes for the weak genre known as “Witch House” which barely registers as different enough to count as a new category. Other bands from this year mostly got hyped more than needed (like Vampire Weekend or WAVVES, neither of which is bad but not like some sort of musical savior). 

2010 wasn’t a complete wash though. I got to finally see one of my favorite bands (Beach House) get the kind of respect that they deserved.  Autechre made up for being sort of irrelevant lately with their surprising “Move of Ten”, which had some of those melody beat workouts I adore. And yeah, LCD Soundsystem came out with another album, which is pretty much a big deal anyway you cut it. Fortunately I got to see them live as well so that was a big bonus. 10 years later people care about Ariel Pink, but that should’ve happened much sooner. His style just kind of allowed for him to be proclaimed the founder of chillwave, etc. No worries though, he’s at least going to continue to get the needed attention.

Even in such a quiet year things do get overlooked. I though Keith Fullerton Whitman’s work was absolutely stunning this year, particularly the “Generator” release, but barely anyone paid attention. Toro Y Moi got passed over too, which I was disappointed about since so many other “chillwavers” got much more thumbs up. The Chris Weisman and Greg Davis collaboration got zero attention, even though it was a deeply weird and original take on ambient music. Women did get noticed, but a bit more underappreciated than I would have liked. Oh well, I guess I’ll take what I can get. 

A few old faces came back from the cold. We got the much missed Gil Scott-Heron, who put in a solid performance. Oval returned as much and perhaps flooded the market with too much product. No one had heard anything from you in about 8 years, so multiple EPs and a double disc might come off a bit strong Mr. Popp. Speaking of too much, Uffie finally released an actual album, complete with all the disappointment that was expected. And No Age came out with an album that showed an evolution towards a maturing phase without fully abandoning all that chaos that made me like them so much in the first place. 

I feel that the music I listened to and liked the most tended to be either very ambient or dance based. Deepchord Present Echospace ruled so much, as did the brand new project VHS Head, which only teased us with an EP last year.  Indignant Senility came out of nowhere with its ultra-depressing Lynch-informed doom. 

Before I write any of these bands down, I’m going to give the year some time to hand over a few last albums (cough, Panda Bear, cough). Plus, I want to give some albums a chance to shine. Arcade Fire grew on me over the album, and I feel there may be one or two albums that I’ve already listened to but perhaps not fully connected to yet. Sometimes I think bands fail to realize that music is in fact seasonal, and that realizing a sunny cheerful album over the winter is usually a terrible idea. We’ll see what other albums come my way over the next few weeks, but I feel as if most of my top list has already been made.

Travelling Without Moving: Thanks Jamiroquai for the suggestion: Day Three

By now you really don’t know what to expect do you? I’ve thrown obscure classical music, various incarnations of post-rock, and ambient. This mix is the easiest of the three; I’ve worked you hard enough with 17-minute long drones. In the beginning, it is rather quiet, but builds up nicely. In fact, I’d say there’s more dance on this one than on any other mix. Less ambient has been thrown in as well, I’ve kept it a lot more beat centered.

Day Three

1. Morton Feldman – Rothko Church 1
Morton Feldman lived in the same building as John Cage. What that means for you is that he adopted a lot of Cage’s ideas, particularly that of chance. But Feldman’s music works on a much softer level. Never does the music raise its voice much; you’ll have to sort of strain yourself to get to the music through the environmental noise.
2. Sunn O))) - Big Church (Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért)
A chorus introduces the piece. Then guitars enter the mix, heavy and angry. Don’t say that I forgot to include metal, here’s your metal.
3. Ekkehard Ehlers – Hubert Fichte 2
This is easily the most abstract thing on the mix. It is also rather quiet, and most of its charms are in the almost tossed-off manner of the music. Much of this is extremely delicate and barely comes together, but this is affectionately weird.
4. Sabir Mateen – Sekasso Blues
I’m showing a little of my origin. He’s a New York-based saxophonist. There’s a ton of energy to this piece, and it should kind of get you in the mood for all the energy that’s coming your way.
5. ChkChkChk – Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (a true story)
Energy will be needed for these guys. Before they became a self-parody (see their most recent album), they rocked. This is their best; they tried to meet the high standard set by this and failed. Not that they could really strike gold twice, this is perfection in its arrangements, bass, drums, guitar, everything here is ideal. I really can’t find a single fault with it, it is a perfect song.
6. Lighting Bolt – Dead Cowboy
You get blasted into another damn universe. At first you’ll be like “WTF” but it will make sense why it follows CHKCHKCHK. There’s a huge amount of percussion, and it is used for good to create a strong backbeat at times. Technically, you could dance to this, but that’s a bit difficult.
7. The Field – Leave It
Wait until the 3 minute mark, once you enter the sweetest bass line ever. I think that’s the whole reason for the song. Plus, it just sounds like some never-ending jam, which is always good in dance, to have just a groove extend into infinity.
8. Jakki – Sun Sun Sun (12 Version)
Larry Levin knew what he was doing in the 70s. Here’s one of my favorites of his, it probably played as DEVO hung out at Studio 54, watching people more famous than himself doing drugs.
9. Byetone – Plastic Star (Session)
Raster Noton time! I have this very house-y song from them, which is surprisingly poppy for a label known have such abstract releases like the remixing of Cosey’s breathing. Anyway, I guess this is what they mean by “German Techno” a relentless beast.
10. SND – 08:22:61
Think of this song as some sort of sonic origami. Using only the sparest of ingredients, they are able to create some absolutely captivating patterns. Since the detail is so little, you are forced to focus on almost the smallest of details. Get some patience, this buildup is worth it.
11. Out Hud - The L Train Is A Swell Train And I Don't Want To Hear You Indies Complain
Uh, I enjoy long song titles. This one is from 2002, and back then the L train wasn’t known as the hipster transportation device. In fact, it was sort of a shitty line. Anyway, you’ll like the song. Another one of those dance songs I told you about.
12. Sonic Youth – The Sprawl
You should know this.
13. Glenn Branca – First Movement
He influenced Sonic Youth (see above), Godspeed, and most of Post-Rock. Starting small, it builds up into some giant monster ready to devour you. Let him.
14. Faust – Why don’t you eat Carrots?
If Germans need examples of their humor, they can turn here. Starting out with intense feedback, random transmissions of shitty bands, they blast off into some bizarre fuzzed-out guitar jams and sing-along chorus. You’ll either hate this or love it.
15. The Fiery Furnaces - Chief Inspector Blancheflower
Continuing with the sing-along, we have these two to keep you company. You get to hear how they were idiots, so being a cop was the only option. Plenty of handclaps and very odd grooves underlie his vocals and his sister’s.
16. Yo La Tengo – Sea Urchins
This was actually one of the first Yo La Tengo songs I’d ever heard. I figure around now you might need a little relaxation, there’s more intense energy with these songs than the previous.
17. Boredoms – Cheeba
Loud Japanese people scream at you! The song begins out of nowhere complete with pure Japanese funk technology. Who says that they lost a decade? They gained the Boredoms.
18. Deepchord Presents Echospace – BCN Dub
Welcome to part I of the dub trilogy. Here we have the dance-y aspects shown off, by people who somehow created a good dub techno without ripping off Basic Channel. This is very impressive.
19. Pocahaunted – Iron Shirt
Dub continues in its more drugged out/nothing matters incarnation. Two women wail into microphones, offering attempts at some sort of progression. Fortunately, the music doesn’t go anywhere, and you’re left with a heavy groove.
20. Farmers Manual - Le Wöb
Sadly, Farmers Manual is on hiatus or something. Until they come back, enjoy this. They work out of a secret auto garage in Vienna and spend unreasonable amounts of time on their attractive website. In real life, they work as advertising people or something.
21. Rahmelzee vs. K. Rob – Beat Bop
Yeah, this is excellent. Slow hip hop from the 80s coming at you. I can’t recommend this any more highly. It is just perfect, it could go on for 20 minutes and I’d still be perfectly happy.
22. Eric Copeland – Alien in a Garbage Dump
Eric Copeland warns us about the dangers of drugs by repeating “Just Don’t Do It” about 130 times until it forms the backbone of the song, somehow.
23. Trans Am – American Kooter
Tongue in cheek rock never sounded better. It is so big and so dumb. Play it for your friends and see how stupid they are, or just zone out. Thinking isn’t required for this.
24. Don Caballero – P,P,P Antless
You wish you could play drums like that, but you have a job.
25. Deerhoof – The Last Trumpter Swan
Again, you wish you could play drums like that and have a cute woman with a polarizing voice singing over it.
26. Mojave 3 – Bluebird of Happiness
It is all about the buildup for this one. Thankfully, it is worth it once you hit the emotional core.
27. Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 2 – Moderato
You should know this, but if you don’t, it is dramatic.
28. Dan Deacon – Snookered
An underrated artist if there ever was one. He gets a lot of hate for his live shows, but really audiences are boring just standing there.
29. Egg – A Visit to Newport Hospital
Come and listen to more progressive rock recommendations from Dr. Thaddeus Venture.
30. Plug – Cut (’97 remix)
Luke Vibert is a bit boring now, but that wasn’t always the case. Here you get to see his early stuff, and that he might have been repetitive, but still catchy enough to get away with it.
31. The Swiss – Bubble Bath
Australians love electro. See exhibit A.
32. Dizzy Gillespie & Stan Getz – Bebop
More Jazz! You ought to be at least familiar with these two, and the pace of the whole thing is maniac.
33. Tim Buckley - Anonymous Proposition
Finally, I leave things off with a love letter dedicated to you, dear listeners. It is tender, emotional, and not sappy. Rather than making it based off of rhythm or melody, it works out of a more emotional base than anything technical. Plus, his voice is superb.

I hope you enjoyed these selections as much as I enjoyed making them for you. Have a joyous day!